James Comey Testifies on Leaking Details of a Meeting to Prompt an Investigation

At his hearing today (06-09-17) before the Senate Intel Committee, former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump, testified that he leaked details of an Oval Office meeting with Trump to prompt an independent investigation of Russia’s possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Comey said that after he was kicked to the curb by Trump in May and threatened that he (Trump) had tapes of their meetings, Comey essentially told a friend and faculty member of Columbia Law School to share details from his own memo of the meetings which is how it leaked to the NY Times.

“My judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square. And so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons. But I asked him to…because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”

Interestingly, while Comey was still testifying to the committee, news outlets identified that person as Dan Richman who the New York Times had previously ID’d as a longtime Comey friend.

Asked during testimony why he had not simply leaked the memo himself to NYT, Comey said he had just been fired and media was camped out at the end of his driveway.

“I worried it would be like feeding seagulls at the beach,” Comey said, causing laughter in the hall.

The former FBI Director also said he hopes there are tapes of his meetings with Trump, and called on the president to release them.